HOW DO YOU READ?

Evening Post, Volume CXXII, Issue 149, 21 December 1936, Page 4

HOW DO YOU READ?

SKIMMING AND PORING

HINTS FOR BETTER METHODS

GRASPING SENSE

How do you read? asks Marjorie Shuler in the Boston "Christian Science Monitor." Can you take one glance at a page and lift the heart right out of the contents? Do your eyes fly from left to right in a steady skim? Do you see whole phrases W a time or merely one word? Is your speed around 600 to 700 words a minute, which is fair, or can you manage 1000 to 1500, which is pretty good, or do you amble along with your finger following each line, mouthing each word in, an effort to mentally hear it, and thereby slacken down your pace to some 80 to 100 words each 60 seconds?

If you tested yourself you might discover some pretty interesting facts. Is it really lack of time, for instance, which prevents your doing all the reading you would like, or is it that it takes you fifteen minutes to go through the column of type which you could finish in^two minutes?

It all appears to be pretty important not alone to the individual but to society as a whole, for college professors after much research and many , tests have decided that not knowing how to read is the invisible handicap which keep's many human beings from realising to the fullest their individual capacities and intelligence. They believe that truancy, delinquency, even crime, have their roots in the frustrated sense of children who do not read well enough to keep up with their classmates and who consequently lose their ambition under the taunts 'of being lazy, dull,'stupid. They think there would be fewer gang members if there were-more visitors at public libraries. They credit not knowing how tjS read together with lack of cultural background in homes with being two of the main reasons why few adults read much and very few read what might be called good books, thereby lowering the general knowledge of art, science, politics, economics, social questions. CASE OP A STUDENT. ilf you are poor in arithmetic you know it. If historical dates slip out of your thinking as fast as you try to put them in you are aware of that fact. If you can't spell many friends will help to bringyour defect to your attention. But you may not be reading properly and be all unconscious of that fact. • - . This was the case with a college freshman recently. He seemed unable to keep up with his assignments, so lamentably deficient that his teachers had about decided that he could never graduate. Then some one thought to test his reading. They found that it took him ten times as long to cover a page as the average among his classmates. :He was using considerabJe mental energy just to see what it was all about without, actually having started to memorise. As for his thinking, he was found to be the equal of Yale University law graduates or » graduate students in Columbia University. So now along with calculus and advanced French he is learning how to read. Plenty of New York city public school children also are being taught reading in a series of experiments reaching from the elementary through the high schools. The work was started among elementary pupils in January, 1934, under the direction of Dr. Arthur I. Gates, of Teachers' College, Columbia' University, and carried on by W.P.A. workers. During <this time 12,000 children have been taught, 97 per cent, of them coming out with as good or better grades in reading than the average public school pupiL MUST TIME HIMSELF. The first step for. the person who wants to utilise his reading skill to the greatest advantage is to time himself. If he finds that he reads fewer than 600 words a minute, which is the average for c fourth grade child, he can Increase his speed by a conscious effort. According to Dr. Gates, he should, practise several times a day, attempting as in a game to beat his ' own record. He should not persist -when he finds the occupation too tiring or too boring, but he should stick to his purpose in the long run. He should not be discouraged if he comes to what are called plateaus in learning, the monotonous stretches in which it seems as though nothing is being accomplished. Like changing a tennis stroke it may seem for a time as though the new technique were too irksome, too limiting. But persistence brings mastery and suddenly the user of the pew way will find that it has become A tool In his hand. Some things definitely to eliminate are the use of the finger to follow lines of type and tha articulation of words. Both of these slacken speed perceptibly. , Highly interesting material should |je selected for the experiment Long eye jumps should be attempted. The reader should watch to see whether he is taking full advantage of punctuation marks or whether his uncertainty as to their intent confuses him. He should look for context clues which help him in advance of actually seeing the next word to anticipate it. And he should attempt to see entire phrases at a glance not merely word for word. NEW WORDS EACH DAT. He will be helped by setting himself the stint of really learning ten new words a day, and by frequent consultations of the dictionary to widen his understanding of meanings. While he is improving his technique he should begin to make a distinction between the three general branches of reading, painstaking perusal with a certain memorisation of the words or their general tenor, skimming which is useful in glancing down the page of a newspaper or .magazine to determine whether.or not you wish to read certain articles, and rapid reading which is resorted Ao for the general idea of a story where the plot is the main interest and there is no fine writing or phrasing over which to mulL It is a waste of time to apply careful reading to a fact which is of only temporary use and which can. be readily discarded after a few days or weeks, just as it is a mistake to skim too rapidly through passages which are so beautiful in idea or in expression that they should be dwelt on with lingering appreciation. On the other hand rapid reading is not necessarily careless reading. ' ' It is useful then -to determine Which technique you will apply to the page before you. If you want to learn how to skim you might try putting your hands over the edges of the page and glance at ijhe centre to see whether you can get the sense/ of it quickly. After practising this method for a time, the eye should be so trained that it will seek the centre of the page arid yet follow important words to the sides. SELF-EXAMINATION. If the aim is careful reading, then it is advisable to stop at the conclusion of a paragraph and see whether you ha#e grasped its-salient..j>om£, Can

you repeat it in your own words? What arguments did the author advance in support of his contention? What is your point of view on the subject? What have you previously read concerning it? Is this author in agreement with your own general thought? Has what you read helped to improve your thought or by seeing adverse arguments have you clarified your own position and strengthened it?

Again, are you watching for indications of bias or prejudice in the author, and equally for expressions of kindness, consideration, tolerance? Can you build up a word picture of your author from your own understanding of his words, whether they are crisp or graceful, staccato or involved, gentle or sarcastic? Can you comprehend what is his outlook on living and is it consistent with your own so that you are willing to confide a place in your thinking to his writing?

Eight reading to one's self should improve reading out loud. A clear appreciation of the meaning should banish monotonous tones, help us to make the right pauses, to place the emphasis where it belongs, and to separate thought into its proper phrases.

To take wings with words is like exchanging the slow, creaking, laborious rumble of the oxcart for the swift, smooth glide of the aeroplane. Ceasing our stumbling struggle for the mechanical grasp of the words, we are able to let our understanding soar to a comprehension of the ideas which the words express.